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Lucky Joe Copper-Gold Project, Yukon
Target | Property Description & Location | Access, Climate & Physiography | History | Geological Setting | Exploration | Mineralization | Proposed Exploration | Figures | Yukon Sedimentary Iron Oxide Copper-Gold Target Acquisition | Related News Releases | Photo Gallery
Target
- Large, porphyry style copper-gold deposit.
The Lucky Joe project hosts a unique style of copper-gold mineralization that appears to be a metamorphosed and deformed porphyry copper-gold deposit or possibly an iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) type deposit. Regardless of the model, there is the opportunity for discovery of a very large deposit. The exciting and positive features of this project are the large aerial extent of potential mineralization (measured in kilometres), its near surface, flat-lying nature and the strong correlation between gold and copper. A major surface program, consisting of soil sampling and geological mapping, was completed in 2002 and 2003. In 2005, five core drill holes were completed for a total of 1,035 m. Total exploration expenditures are approximately $2 million, of which over $1.5 million was spent by Kennecott.
In the late 1970's, drilling of a small part (less than two percent) on the fringe of this potentially mineralized area gave values of 0.3% copper to 0.6% copper over thicknesses of 20 to 30 m, with values up to 0.95% Cu over 5.2 m. Gold was shown to have close to a 1:1 correlation with copper. When copper assays are in the 0.9% range, gold values are in the .8 to .9 gm gold/tonne range.
Drilling in 2005 and 2006 encountered a broad area in the core of the Papa Bear soil anomaly with low grade, porphyry style copper-gold alteration and mineralization to depths of in excess of 300 m.
Late in 2006, the Company drilled a hole at the south end of the Ryan's Creek trend, on a coincident IP chargeability and soil copper-gold anomaly. A mineralized zone consisting of trace to 2% chalcopyrite and trace to 2% pyrite was encountered between 48 and 91 m. Within this zone, copper values up to 0.75 % over 3.0 m and gold values up to 3.0 g/t over 2.4 m were encountered. Additional drilling in 2007, 2000 to 3500 m north of the initial intersection, encountered up to 7.3m at 0.905% Cu and .5 g/t gold in hole LJ07-19, 26.6m at 0.152% Cu in hole LJ07-18 and 15.3m at 0.176%Cu in hole LJ07-22.
Subject to a complete review and interpretation of the results from the 2007 drilling, the Company is considering an ongoing drill program to test for continuity and higher grade mineralization along strike from and below existing intersections, particularly focusing on the 2,000 m gap between drill holes LJ07-19 and LJ06-09. The IP geophysical and soil geochemical surveys suggest the mineralized zone is continuous throughout this interval.
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Property Description and Location
 The Lucky Joe property consists of 548 claims with a total area of approximately 9,000 hectares. Copper Ridge has now earned a 100% interest in the Lucky Joe claims. The property is located 50 kilometres south of Dawson City, with access by helicopter. Previous access for drilling equipment and fuel was by a 35 km tractor trail from the Yukon River, west of the property. These trails also connect with roads accessing placer claims to the east of the property.
The property hosts a known zone of copper-gold mineralization on the original Lucky Joe claim as defined by surface trenching and 15 drill holes completed in the 1970's, as well as several additional zones of potential copper-gold mineralization as defined by soil sampling surveys and partially delimited by 5 holes drilled in 2005.
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Access, Climate and Physiography
The Lucky Joe, within the Dawson Mining District (see Figure 1).
 The mineral claims lie in an unglaciated part of the Yukon. They cover rolling hills of the Yukon Plateau with elevations ranging from 500 m to over 1,000 m with very little bedrock exposure but with thin, residual soils. The claim area is treed by thick stands of alpine spruce, willow and poplar, with thinner vegetation and thick moss cover in permafrost areas on north-facing slopes and valleys. Most of the area has been burned over at various times in the last several decades.
Climate is typical for northern Yukon, with long cold winters, but minimal snow cover. Summers are warm and dry to cool and moist. The field season typically runs from early June until mid-September, although for drilling and for geophysical surveys, this season can be extended significantly, from March to October.
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History
The Lucky Joe property was originally staked by Silver Standard in 1970 following up anomalous copper geochemistry in stream sediments in Lucky Joe Creek. Silver Standard conducted geological mapping, geochemical sampling, trenching and drilled three short core holes in 1970 and 1971. In 1974, the property was optioned to Rio Tinto Canadian Exploration Limited ("Riocanex") who, over the next four years, completed additional geological and geochemical surveys, ground geophysical surveys and 2,437 m of drilling in 15 holes. Copper occurs below a magnetite-rich unit and grades into a pyritic zone, forming a blanket-like horizon of disseminated sulphides up to 300 m thick. The mineralization had been interpreted as either a metamorphosed copper-gold porphyry or a sedimentary copper-gold occurrence with possible volcanic affinity.
No subsequent work was done in the area until 2001. Following up on a detailed, low level airborne geophysical survey conducted jointly by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Yukon Geology Program, prospector Shawn Ryan recognized the potential for a much larger copper-gold mineralized system. After a limited program of targeted geochemical sampling that successfully demonstrated a much broader distribution of copper mineralization, Ryan staked the property.
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Geological Setting
The property is underlain by metamorphic rocks of the Proterozoic to Paleozoic Yukon Tanana Terrane. Within the immediate vicinity of the Lucky Joe property, the rocks include quartz-feldspar-mica schist, quartzite, amphibolite and orthogneiss (see Figure 3). These rocks have been intruded by Paleozoic to Permian granitic rocks. Younger, possibly Cretaceous intrusives have also been recognized locally on the property.
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Exploration
During the 2002 and 2003 field seasons, Copper Ridge and Kennecott carried out surface exploration programs consisting of the collection of approximately 3,000 soil samples. Generalized soil contour values for copper and gold are shown on Figure 3. This was a reconnaissance-style survey with lines spaced 250 m apart and samples collected every 50 m. The survey was laid out to cover the fringes of magnetic high areas as defined by the joint Geological Survey of Canada/Yukon Geology Program low level aeromagnetic survey.
Two strongly anomalous zones were outlined. The Papa Bear anomaly, approximately 4.5 km north of the original Lucky Joe, is 13 km long and up to 2 km wide. The core of this anomaly, 1,500 m by 1,000 m, averages greater than 250 ppm copper and plus 10 ppm molybdenum, with many values in the range of 1,000 to 4,300 ppm copper and 15 to 76 ppm molybdenum. Hypothetical section lines through the Papa Bear zone are shown in Figures 4 and 5.
The Ryan's Creek anomaly, 3 km south of the original Lucky Joe deposit, is locally as strong as the Bear Cub anomaly. Using a threshold value of 60 ppm copper, it has a strike length of 7 km and an average width of up to 1,000 m. The strongly anomalous copper values range from 500 ppm to 4,400 ppm while the anomalous gold in soil values are in the 50 to 600 ppb range. The linear shape of the anomaly follows the transition from a magnetic high along the ridge to the west and a magnetic low in the valley. Drilling in 2006 suggests that there is a good correlation between copper-gold mineralization and a strong, linear IP chargeability geophysical anomaly that is over 4500 m in length.
In both cases, the soil copper anomalies appear to wrap around local magnetic high areas, as predicted by the geological model of the copper mineralization underlying the magnetite-bearing amphibolite. At Bear Cub, the anomaly is more compact or irregular in shape. This is believed to be the result of a combination of folding of the amphibolite and the underlying copper zone and the topography that cuts through the gently undulating stratigraphy. At Ryan's Creek, the anomaly is elongate, reflecting probably flat-lying stratigraphy with the amphibolite running along the northwest trending ridge and the copper zone below this along the slope and locally into the valley.
In 2005, Kennecott completed a 7 km long IP line, followed by 1,035 m of drilling in 5 holes. Although copper and gold grades were low, the drilling confirmed the existence of metamorphosed porphyry-style copper gold mineralization along a strike length of 3.7 km within the core of the Papa Bear anomaly. In 2006, Copepr Ridge completed an additional 18 km of IP surveying and drilled 841.2 m in 7 holes, only 2 of which reached their intended target.
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Mineralization
Drilling by Silver Standard and Riocanex demonstrated a blanket-like style of mineralization up to 300 m thick that is generally stratabound. The uppermost sequence is a magnetite-bearing amphibolite. Below this is a layer of chalcopyrite-bearing biotite-muscovite schist with minor pyrite and pyrrhotite and traces of molybdenite. At the original Lucky Joe showing, copper values range from 0.3% Cu to 0.6% Cu over 30 to 50 m. Very little of the core was analyzed for gold, but where tested, it was shown that gold and copper values correlate very closely, with approximately 1 gm/tonne gold for each percent copper. Underlying the copper zone is a layer up to 200 m thick of disseminated pyrite within schist and orthogneiss.
2005 Drilling
Drilling by Kennecott focused on the core of the Papa Bear anomaly (see Figures 3 and 4). Drilling encountered extensive thicknesses of low grade, porphyry style copper-gold mineralization. Essentially all the drill holes were mineralized from top to bottom, although copper values were typically below 0.1% Cu. The one exception was hole 2, that intersected 22.7 m averaging 0.217% copper and 88.5 ppb gold, starting at 255.4 m, within a 94.7 m interval of 0.13% copper and 52.4 ppb gold, to the end of the hole at 352.1 m. Hole 3 encountered 74.1 m grading 0.135% copper and 0.032 gpt gold beginning at 60.1 m within a 127.7 m section grading 0.099% copper beginning at 18.3 m.
2006 Drilling
On the Ryan's Creek trend, hole LJ06-09 intersected strongly to moderately altered schist through most of its length. A mineralized zone consisting of trace to 2% chalcopyrite and trace to 2% pyrite was encountered between 48 and 91 m. Within this zone, copper values up to 0.75 % over 3.0 m and gold values up to 3.0 g/t over 2.4 m were encountered (See table below).
These results are from the extreme south end of a 7 km long anomalous trend defined by gold and copper soil geochemistry, magnetics and IP chargeability. Two other holes attempted in this area did not reach bedrock, so the mineralization encountered in hole LJ06-09 remains open in all directions.
2007 Drilling
The 2007 program included 2400 m in 13 holes (one of which did not reach bedrock) that targeted the Ryan's Creek anomaly, 2000 to 3500 m north of the 2006 intersection. These new results indicate the presence of a potentially large copper-gold mineralized system.
Best results from this program include 7.3m at 0.905% Cu and .5 g/t gold (LJ07-19), 26.6m at 0.152% Cu (LJ07-18) and 15.3m at 0.176%Cu (LJ07-22). They define a copper-gold mineralized horizon that extends for at least 1,500 m and possibly greater than 3,500 m in strike length including 2006 hole LJ06-09. The horizon is defined by pyrite mineralization that occurs as both disseminated and massive to semi massive blebs throughout the host quartz-biotite-chlorite schist. Copper mineralization, with associated elevated gold values, occurs within this horizon as malachite near the upper sections and as disseminated to blebby chalcopyrite at depth. The following table summarizes the significant intersections.
Hole No. |
From(m) |
To(m) |
Interval(m) |
Cu(%) |
Au(g/t) |
LJ06-09 |
50.9 |
62.95 |
12.05 |
0.370 |
0.800 |
includes |
57.0 |
60.05 |
3.05 |
0.760 |
0.380 |
includes |
60.05 |
62.45 |
2.4 |
0.170 |
3.240 |
LJ07-14 |
171.9 |
187.2 |
15.3 |
0.103 |
0.018 |
LJ07-16 |
27.1 |
46.7 |
19.6 |
0.187 |
0.079 |
LJ07-18 |
35.7 |
62.3 |
26.6 |
0.152 |
0.100 |
includes |
35.7 |
44.3 |
8.6 |
0.107 |
0.162 |
includes |
54.2 |
62.3 |
8.1 |
0.225 |
0.188 |
LJ07-19 |
8.5 |
15.8 |
7.3 |
0.905 |
0.500 |
LJ07-22 |
62.6 |
85.3 |
15.3 |
0.176 |
0.113 |
Mineralized intersections in all holes occur immediately east of a strong IP chargeability anomaly and correlate directly with a sharply defined copper-gold soil anomaly. Copper and gold values are increasing to the south along the Ryan Trend structure, as demonstrated by hole LJ07-19, the most southerly drill hole of the 2007 program, and hole LJ06-09, located 2,000 m further south. Hole LJ07-21 was collared 160 m north of hole LJ06-09 to follow up the copper-gold intersection discovered in 2006 (see table above). Due to insufficient casing, this hole was unable to penetrate the very broken and sandy material that occurs above bedrock in this area. Therefore the intersection in hole LJ06-09 remains open in all directions.
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Proposed Exploration
Subject to a complete review and interpretation of the results from the 2007 drilling, the Company is considering an ongoing drill program to test for continuity and higher grade mineralization along strike from and below existing intersections, particularly focusing on the 2,000 m gap between drill holes LJ07-19 and LJ06-09. The IP geophysical and soil geochemical surveys suggest the mineralized zone is continuous throughout this distance.
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Figures
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Related News Releases
| October 03, 2007 |
Final Lucky Joe Drill Results 1500 m Copper-Gold Zone Defined |
| August 31, 2007 |
Initial Drill Results Lucky Joe Cu-Au Project |
| June 12, 2007 |
Drilling Underway At Copper Ridge's Lucky Joe Cu-Au Project |
| December 13, 2006 |
Copper Ridge Intersects Copper-Gold Mineralization In Lucky Joe Drilling |
| October 20, 2006 |
Drilling Completed at Lucky Joe |
| September 13, 2006 |
Copper Ridge Exploration Update Drilling Commences At Lucky Joe |
| August 18, 2006 |
Copper Ridge Field Program Update |
| May 24, 2006 |
Exploration Commences on Copper Ridge's Lucky Joe Copper-Gold Project, Yukon |
| December 22, 2005 |
Copper Ridge - Project Update |
| October 19, 2005 |
Lucky Joe Project Returned to Copper Ridge |
| August 05, 2005 |
Final Drill Results from Lucky Joe Project |
| July 27, 2005 |
Initial Drill Results from Lucky Joe Project |
| July 05, 2005 |
Drilling Underway at Yukon Olympic IOCG Target; Drilling Completed at Lucky Joe |
| June 09, 2005 |
Drilling Program Commences on Lucky Joe Project |
| May 27, 2005 |
Lucky Joe Field Work Commences Project Updates |
| April 06, 2005 |
Copper Ridge Exploration Update |
| March 16, 2005 |
Copper Ridge to Drill Lucky Joe Cu-Au Deposit |
| January 12, 2005 |
Kennecott to Drill Lucky Joe Project |
| February 03, 2004 |
Lucky Joe Project Update |
| October 27, 2003 |
Kennecott Outlines Giant Copper-Gold System at Lucky Joe |
| August 21, 2003 |
Large Copper-Gold Anomalies Defined by Kennecott at Lucky Joe |
| July 15, 2003 |
Exploration Underway at Three Yukon Field Projects |
| January 21, 2003 |
Kennecott Options Copper Ridge's Lucky Joe Copper-Gold IOCG Project, Yukon |
| October 01, 2002 |
16 km Long Target Confirmed for Copper-gold Exploration at Lucky Joe |
| August 20, 2002 |
Copper-Gold Target Extended at Lucky Joe |
| July 02, 2002 |
Exploration Underway Lucky Joe Copper-Gold Project, Yukon |
| June 21, 2002 |
Additional Lucky Joe Gold-Copper Acquisition, Yukon |
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